Recently support received a question if video assurance can be used to replace a face-to-face meeting in an assurance. The short answer is that currently the rules of CAcert do NOT allow video assurances. [1, 2]

One aspect of the face-to-face meeting why you need to meet the assuree in person is such that you can check security features of the presented documents. This check can not be done with video communication like e.g. FaceTime, Google+ Hangout, Jitsi, Skype [3] as verifying documents includes getting a feel for the presented documents as well as checking security features, that are not or not easily transferable with video conferencing.

In case CAcert sees any signs of assurance entries that hint to having been conducted as video assurances these cases will be reviewed (by arbitration) AND removed from the system if they are found to be invalid.

The 28th Large Installation System Administration conference (aka. Lisa 2014) will be meeting November 9-14 in Seattle, WA, USA. We have held a CAcert Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) session at several previous LISA events. The CAcert Assurance BoF at LISA 14 will be Tuesday evening November 11th. This session is open to the public. Full details are posted on the event page on the CACert Wiki:

http://wiki.cacert.org/Events/2014-11-11-LISA14

We will start with a presentation to introduce CAcert to newcomers. We will also discuss recent changes to the CCA (CACert Community Agreement), the TTP Assurance Program and other changes.. We will have several assurers there to do initial assurances. Mutual assurances are encouraged for getting practice and for answering questions. And there is the added benefit of earning experience points.

If you are in town for the conference or you live in the area, please join us to learn more about free digitial certificates available through CAcert.org.